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Breeding

Everything starts in the hatchery. We select parent stock from Sri Lanka's own natural populations and raise the post-larvae that go on to stock reservoirs across the country.

Broodstock

It starts with the right parents.

The giant freshwater prawn is indigenous to Sri Lanka, not an introduced species, and Divron selects its broodstock from that natural population. Everything downstream, the size the animal reaches and the condition it arrives in, is set by that choice before a single larva hatches.

The hatchery is built to reproduce the conditions the species needs: breeding, larval development, water quality, nutrition and early growth, all managed rather than left to chance. That is what makes the supply reliable enough to stock reservoirs on a schedule.

An egg-bearing female prawn held in the hand, eggs visible

The hatchery

Supply that does not wait for a season.

The hatchery is built for supply rather than demonstration. It produces more than ten million post-larvae every two months, which is what lets Divron stock reservoirs to a schedule instead of whenever a season allows.

That volume comes out of a natural process, not a shortcut. Each female carries 50,000 to 60,000 eggs, and every larva that hatches is reared on artemia, algae and probiotics through the six weeks that follow.

Giant freshwater prawn post-larvae in a hatchery bowl
A hatchery technician checking larvae under the microscope

Hatchery

Species
Macrobrachium rosenbergii
Eggs per female
50,000–60,000
Larval rearing
45–60 days
Output
10 million+ post-larvae every 2 months

The first 45 days

Forty-five days under controlled conditions, then a reservoir.

A larva that hatches in our tanks spends its first six weeks being watched. Water quality, feed and density are managed the whole way, because a post-larva that leaves the hatchery weak will not survive a reservoir.

  1. Day 1

    The larval cycle begins

    Newly hatched larvae enter the rearing tanks.

  2. Day 10

    Early development

    Growth under managed water quality, feed and density.

  3. Day 45

    Post-larvae, ready

    Juveniles strong enough for the next stage.

  4. Reservoir

    Into open water

    Transported out and released into a stocked reservoir.